Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

It

ties, is, from the nature of our mental acts, demanded for the act which Adam did. It was the soul, then, that sinned, and as a whole -for there were not certain of Adam's powers which lay dormant when he was meditating or acting out the great transgression. was not a part of the man that thought and desired, and acted while another portion of the man lay innocently and idly by. It was the soul in the exercise of all its faculties, and as the soul that sinneth dies, so the transgression of Adam involves such an effect on all and every power of Adam, intellectual, moral, spiritual, and physical, as may legitimately be described by the term, death.

Now the apostle Paul in Rom. vi. 23, speaking of the effects of sin on the one hand, and the blessings of believers on the other hand, who are delivered from the effects of sin, says "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ." Here the curse and the blessing are opposed to each other. In saving men from the curse and conferring the blessing, the Lord bestows eternal life. Whatever then is involved in the idea of eternal life, as the gift of God, must necessarily be antagonistic to an element that lay in the curse or man's weakness and misery. Does eternal life mean and include the spiritual knowledge of God and holy things; does it include a life of happiness and continuance of being in the capacity of enjoying these things? Then these and all other things which make up the idea of eternal life, are involved in the gift; and before they are bestowed, the sinner who is bearing the wages of sin-that is-death, is destitute of them all. If apart from Christ and the work of the Spirit, a man has spiritual intelligence, spiritual affections, or spirituality of will, and if these form elements of a happy and eternal life-he cannot be said to have received them as a gift through Jesus Christ, seeing that apart from Christ he already possesses them. And if all who are to reign in heaven, do actually receive these things as the gift of God, because of which they have a meetness for glory, then it follows that in their natural estate, they did not possess them. They may have had an intelligence, affection and will, but they could not be of a spiritual order, since this state of the soul is the result of the work of Christ, and is possessed by the redeemed through all eternity as the gift of God.

But further, we desire attention to the principle pervading the declaration of the apostle in Col. iii. 9, 10. And Eph. iv. 22-24. Which we have already quoted. Here believers are said to have put off the old man with his deeds, and to have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.... And to have put off the old man which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, and to have been renewed in the spirit of their minds; and that they have put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Now mark the position of the apostle. In these words there are three things worthy of note. 1. There is implied, the original state of man before the fall, when he stood in his primeval innocence, reflecting the perfections of the deity in whose image he was made. 2. There is implied the features or powers which he lost, and the change which came over him by the fall-and, 3. The change which is effected when he is renewed again by the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, and is made a child of God. The apostle says that the believer is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, what is this, but to say, that when man was created by God in his own image, he was created in knowledge, which he lost in the fall, and now, when he is renewed by the Holy Spirit, after the image of Him that created him, he is endowed with knowledge again. Such renewal in knowledge by the Holy Spirit involves the fact that, before such operation, the sinner had not this knowledge. Man had spiritual knowledge when he came forth in all his perfection from the hand of his Creator, and he was made righteous and holy. He could not have been made holy and intelligent without his intelligence being of a spiritual character, and he could not lose his holy intelligence without losing the righteousness and holiness of his character, nor could he lose his holiness without his intelligence suffering likewise. These things are all bound up together indissolubly. Now the Apostle, it will be perceived, also declares in the above quotation, that in conversion, or in the putting off the old man, there is a bestowal of righteousness and true holiness-after God-or after the image or likeness of God, as it is expressed in the other quotation. What is this, but to say, that if in conversion and renewal of soul, man receives these gifts, he must have been destitute of them in his natural state? If he be renewed in them, and renewed after the Divine image, and if he were originally created in the Divine image, what is this, but to say, that he possessed these elements of being when made-that he lost them, and now by grace they are bestowed again! Before such bestowal it is only natural to expect, that the sinner would act in relation to all spiritual things in such a manner as any person would do, who is constrained by a peculiar constitution, whether that constitution labour under a bias or a defect. Hence it is, that " the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. ii. 14.) It must follow then, that, as the natural man cannot know spiritual things, he cannot love them, for no man can love without knowledge of an object; and if there be not knowledge and love, there cannot be the action of will, for the will and the affections are ever associated, and there can be no will where there is no affection, and no affection where there is no knowledge. It appears, then, that all the symbols and creeds from which we have given our extracts, are eminently scriptural and philosophical, where they declare as in our own Confession, that IV., "From this original corruption we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good."-In the Waldensian Confession, " all men are by nature the children of wrath, being all dead in their trespasses and sin, and consequently incapable of the least good motion;" or as the French Church declares, "that by his understanding and reason he can never come to God," and also where "those things which God gave to Adam were not given to him alone but also to all his posterity; and therefore, we, in his person being deprived of all those good gifts, are fallen into this poverty and malediction." Article X.

Our examination of the Scripture passages before us, and the principles which we have found, will now enable us in closing this paper, to notice at all the length it deserves, the theory which admits that man's nature did suffer in the fall, but that his weakness merely lies in the will.

That this position is not only unscriptural, but exceedingly weak and untenable, will, we think, be obvious by a metaphysical examination of the nature of our will, in relation to our powers, and by referring to one or two statements of Scripture.

Our metaphysics shall be of the simplest character. That we possess intelligence or the capacity of knowing is obvious. By our intelligence we are capable of discerning the qualities of objects, and, according to our impressions and ideas as to the qualities of objects, we love, desire, hate, despise or neglect them. If we perceive a desirable quality in an object, the existence of desire in the mind sets the will into action, and we put forth efforts to obtain that which we thus desire. If the object be perceived as clothed with aversion, there is the idea of repulsion, the will to avoid or reject that which is displeasing. Let any one try to conceive of an act of will anterior to, or apart from motion or desire of any kind, and he will see that the mental act is impossible. Will in action, implies action because of desires of one character or another. But the idea of desires in relation to any object, implies knowledge of the qualities of that object, so as to elicit these desires. There can, therefore, be no desires anterior to intelligence; and according to the views of objects by our cognitive powers, our desires will be characterized. Will, therefore, follows desires, and desire is the result of knowledge, so that, as our knowledge is, our affections and volitions shall be.

If then there be an indisposition in the will to God, to faith, to repentance, to any spiritual thing, that indisposition must be connected with the state of the affections, and the affections are as the condition of the knowledge may be.

Illustrations without number may be adduced to prove the truth of our position. How many hundreds of Californians and Australians have travelled over the valleys and mountain gorges of their respective lands, and yet they willed not to collect the glittering sands which lay before them. There was no will, because there was no affection, and no affection, because there was no knowledge of the value of the treasures that lay beneath and around. When the eyes were opened to the truth, the affections were correspondingly acted on, and the will was forthwith found in due obedience; and so it is in spiritual things. The blinding of the understanding by sin will alone account for the fact that men believe not, and that their affections are estranged and placed on objects antagonistic to their good,

[ocr errors]

and towards which they are attracted by the estimate which a diseased mind has formed of them, and the will, subservient to or working because of these affections, goes out in its efforts to secure and retain them, while the gospel is neglected, and salvation is despised.

Our analysis will not suffer, provided it be objected with certain theologians or metaphysicians that there is no true distinction between the understanding and the will. We object not to Witsius (on the Covenants, chap. vii. § 4,) where he says, "Would not every difficulty be removed, and the whole of that controversy that has been raised among divines about the subject of faith be settled, if, as we justly may, we should refuse that there is any real distinction of understanding and will, as well as from the soul as from each other? For what is the understanding, but the soul understanding and knowing? What else the will but the soul willing and discerning?" Just so; to this we do not object; all that we affirm is that the mind is not like a drawer which contains a number of instruments, one of which may be imperfect, and the others perfect, and the inefficiency of their combined operation to be set down to the imperfection of the affected tool. We contend that the soul willing, cannot be apart from, nor anterior in its exercise to the soul knowing, and willing because of certain objects of desire or aversion known; and, therefore, to lodge our moral imperfection merely in the will, as some have done, is, we hold, entirely contradictory to all correct views of our mental and moral constitutions, as we believe it is also opposed to the express and implied teaching of the word of God. We attend to spiritual things, and work out our salvation, when God worketh in us. We are a willing people in the day of God's power; and thus we think that there is manifestly a beautiful congruity between the statements of Scripture, the principles of philosophy and the experience of all renewed souls.

At present we close, leaving the other anti-scriptural.systems which we have mentioned for future examination. SCRUTATOR.

LAY AGENCY IN THE CHURCH.

THE Church seems still to cling to that remnant of Popish superstition, which virtually confines the business of instrumentally promoting its prosperity to the clerical order. It was not, however, till Christianity had become grossly corrupted, that lay agency was brought into disrepute. Then a degenerate priesthood, ambitious to lord it over God's heritage, and desirous of keeping the key of knowledge and influence in their own hands, sought to establish the notion that all spiritual good was to be traced to some secret charm, or virtue in mystical order; and that all active participation, on the part of the laity, in sacred things, was a presumptuous interference. But such notions subvert the essential principles of practical Christianity, which constrain every man, cordially receiving it, to live to God. The day is passed indeed when much is to be apprehended from an undue and superstitious regard for prerogatives of the Christian ministry. But the practical impression that the business of promoting religion, is to be confined to this order in the Church, seems still to retain a firm hold upon the minds of its members. And yet the Church can never enjoy that prosperity, nor exert that influence to which it is adapted, and destined, till all who belong to it come cordially to the help of the Lord against the mighty.

The very nature and extent of the work committed to the Church proves this necessity. God in his infinite wisdom is pleased to carry on his work by means of human instrumentalities. And the Church is composed of the collective body of disciples for the very purpose of accomplishing, by the co-operation of so many, results to which the labours of individual piety are insufficient. It is by concentrating in the Church the scattered rays of personal religion that Christians diffuse a brighter radiance, and "shew forth more effectually the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness, into his marvellous light." How else is the Church to act upon the world as "light," "salt," "leaven?" The mission never will be fulfilled till Christianity is diffused through every part of the earth. But if none but the ministry engage in active service, if the members, by withholding their co-operation, hide their light under a bushel, what multitudes must ever remain unaffected; and how is the time to arrive when "all shall know the Lord from the least to the greatest." The ministry can undertake comparatively little by direct effort out of the pulpit. And if instead of concentrating, they unduly widen the field of their personal operation, they will inevitably fritter away, rather than enlarge their influence. Indeed one reason why they accomplish so little in what appropriately pertains to their office, is that they undertake so much. They cannot give themselves efficiently to prayer, and the ministry of the word, if their time and attention are occupied in serving tables, and other work that elders, and deacons, and private members can, from their more familiar intercourse with the business of the world, undertake far more appropriately. Even the apostles found it impracticable to execute the manifold concerns laid upon them without co-labourers, fellow-helpers, among the laity, which they had in considerable numbers as the salutations of several of the Epistles prove.*

Indeed the representation of the Christian vocation, and the many exhortations, addressed to private Christians in the New Testament, render the point too clear for question. How is this vocation described? As a "work," "a service," "a stewardship. Christ "gave himself for his people, that he might redeem them from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." "They are created in Christ Jesus unto good works." The Holy Ghost forms them into the image of God, who is incessantly engaged

* Acts vi. 1-7; John iii. 8; Rom. xvi.

« PredošláPokračovať »